Let's Talk Rusty Iron

An Idea Whose Time Never Came

By Sam Moore

| June 2005

Harry Cleaver cultivating corn with a Bailor Model A motor cultivator on his farm near Burlington, Iowa, in 1920 or 1921. Harry was the uncle of Lindsey Gillis of Scenery Hill, Pa., who provided the photograph.

Left: An “as found” Bailor Standard cultivator owned by Dwain Robinson of Connersville, Ind., on display at Portland, Ind., in August 2004.

Right: An advertisement for the Bailor motor cultivators from the July 19, 1919, issue of Country Gentleman magazine.

Motor cultivator offered alternative to tractors … just not a
very good one

Sometime ago, I received in the mail a copy of
an old photograph of a young man cultivating corn, using an
unusual, steel-wheeled tractor. Helen Gillis of Scenery Hill, Pa.,
discovered the original photo in the attic of her farmhouse.
Helen's husband, Lindsey, believes the picture was taken in
Burlington, Iowa, about 1920 or '21, and that the man driving the
tractor is his uncle, Harry Cleaver. Lindsey wondered if I could
identify the make of tractor that Uncle Harry was operating.

The tractor in the photo isn't really a tractor at all, but a
motor cultivator made by the Bailor Plow Manufacturing Co. The
first motor cultivators appeared in the mid-teens and, by the time
of the Great Depression, most had disappeared.

Tractor builders of the day believed they could wean the farmer
from his horses by developing light, engine-driven machines that
could take over the duties of planting and cultivating row crops,
jobs that were impossible with the heavy, awkward tractors then in
use.

Motor cultivators never caught on, mostly because of their
expense. The average price of a motor cultivator in 1920 was more
than $500, a large expenditure for a machine that would be used
only during the short cultivating season. In addition, many motor
cultivators were poorly designed, suffered from mechanical problems
and upset easily on hilly ground. The machines were difficult and
tiring to operate, requiring both hands to steer while the feet
were used to control the shovel gangs for close cultivation.

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One of the firms that tried to cash in on the motor cultivator
craze was the Bailor Plow Manufacturing Co. of Atchison, Kan.
Little information on the company is available. A 1916 history of
Atchison County tells us that the Bailor Plow Co. was started in
1910 to manufacture a 2-row cultivator invented by S.E. Bailor. Mr.
Bailor, then of Beatrice, Neb., had developed a 2-row cultivator,
horse-drawn, of course, in about 1890. A wealthy Tarkio, Mo.,
farmer named David Rankin bought 50 of Bailor's cultivators in
1905, and put them to work on his 25,000-acre farm. Rankin liked
the cultivators and convinced Bailor to build a manufacturing plant
in Tarkio.

Five years later, the Atchison (Kan.) Commercial Club was
casting about for profitable businesses to augment the local
economy. Somehow, these community boosters convinced Mr. Bailor to
relocate his operation to Atchison. The relocated firm sold just
100 Bailor cultivators in the first year of operation, but by 1915,
things were looking up. That year, Bailor sold $250,000 worth of
machinery from its 25,000-square foot facility. The firm paid its
40 employees more than $50,000 per annum, a fact proudly pointed
out in the 1916 History of Atchison County.

For a while at least, Bailor cultivators were sold by the Oliver
Chilled Plow Works of South Bend, Ind. A 1916 Oliver catalog lists
Bailor 1- and 2-row cultivators, but they are not listed in a 1925
catalog.

In 1919, Bailor introduced a 2-row motor cultivator, closely
resembling later tricycle tractors, with two large, wide-set
driving wheels in the rear, a front-mounted engine and a single
front steering wheel. The machine was powered by a LeRoi 4-cylinder
side-valve engine that developed 15 hp. Drive was through a 2-speed
and one reverse gear box, to a cross shaft right in front of the
operator. A roller chain from each end of this cross shaft drove a
short final drive shaft on each side. From the final drive shafts,
a roller chain drove a large sprocket inside each rear wheel. All
these chains and sprockets, which appear to have almost surrounded
the operator, were open and unshielded. Individual rear brakes
assisted in making short turns at the ends of rows.

A conventional 2-row cultivator was mounted underneath the high
frame and between the rear wheels. Each rear wheel was attached to
the end of the axle frame by a swivel joint similar to the king pin
on a conventional front steering axle. There was also a universal
joint in the center of each final drive shaft. This allowed the
rear wheels to be steered by a pair of foot pedals under the
operator's seat. This feature was supposed to aid close
cultivation, although it couldn't have been an easy task to use the
foot pedals to steer the rear wheels against the torque from the
drive chains.

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In 1920, the 2-row machine was modified to give the front end
more flotation and improve steering by the addition of a second
front wheel. Designated as the Bailor Model A, this is the same
model shown in Mr. Cleaver's photo where the two close-set front
wheels can be seen.

Bailor also made a narrower, single-row machine called the
"Standard," initially powered by a Cushman 2-cylinder engine and
with two wider-set front wheels to straddle the row. Later, the
Standard was given the same LeRoi engine as the Model A.

When introduced in 1919, the 2-row model cost $850, while the
1-row went for $675, although those prices were down to $500 and
$400 by 1923. Besides various cultivating attachments, a Black Hawk
corn, cotton or bean planter (made by the Sechler Implement &
Carriage Co.) was available.

Bailor motor cultivators were equipped with a rear hitch. Some
advertising claimed they could be used to pull light horse-drawn
implements, such as harrows, mowers or binders, although they
weren't recommended for plowing. Bailor claimed that the 2-row
Model A could replace four horses on the average farm.

It's unknown how many Bailor motor cultivators were
manufactured, but there probably weren't very many. At least a few
were shipped overseas; there's a 1923 model in the Tractor Museum
of Western Australia located at Whiteman Park in Whiteman, Western
Australia. Bailor 1- and 2-row motor cultivators were still listed
in a 1930 Buyers Guide put out by Farm Implement
News, but they disappeared soon after.

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Lindsey Gillis and his family have accumulated a large
collection of antique tractors and farm equipment, which they
display every August at the National Pike Steam, Gas & Horse
Association Show near Brownsville, Pa. Lindsey helped start the
show back in 1980, and their annual shows at the club grounds along
U.S. Route 40, east of Washington, Pa., are always full of
interesting exhibits.

I'll bet Lindsey would love to have his Uncle Harry's Bailor
motor cultivator to exhibit.

- Sam Moore grew up on a farm in western Pennsylvania. He
now lives in Salem, Ohio, and collects antique tractors, implements
and related items. Contact Sam by e-mail at:
letstalkrustyiron@yahoo.com